Wagon Camp

Nomad peoples followed the seasons, with their herds, rather than having a settled lifestyle of farming. The word itself is a Greek term and, as might be expected of the civilised, settled Greeks, they did not approve of barbarous nomads in the slightest. Nomads, on the other hand, may not have had permanent settlements, but their lives were as full and rich as settled farmer or city dweller and probably healthier too, as they didn’t live in squalor. Nomadism is an extremely effective way of living off areas with scarce natural resources such as the steppes. As grazing is exhausted, the herds can be moved on and the land left to recover until the following year. It is also an extremely effective and ruthless way of raising warriors. The easiest way of harvesting scarce resources is, of course, to take them from someone else. The tribe who cannot protect their own livestock, property and kin soon ceases to exist. This also encourages the worst feature of nomad life for neighbouring, settled peoples: nomads will raid and steal from weak, sedentary folk because they are just another resource to be exploited.